PORTLAND — The Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday sided with the town of Scarborough in a dispute over a building permit for a lot next to the Winslow Homer studio on Prouts Neck.

The Portland Museum of Art appealed to the state’s highest court after losing in Superior Court and before the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals.

The estate of Doris Homer owns five lots surrounding the studio and was granted a permit to build a house on one of them.

The museum holds at easement for septic system on one of the lots and opposed the issuance of the building permit on the grounds that construction could infringe on its easement.

Doris Homer, who died in 2009, was married to Charles L. Homer, a nephew of the painter.